take the surplus and put it into Social Security and pay down the debt. We ought to pay down the debt, and we also ought to make Social Security solvent.

The vice president is again raising the specter of Social Security to frighten senior citizens, ... Instead of frightening seniors, we need to sit down and realize that we need to find a source of money to make Social Security solvent and then allow Americans to be able to invest their savings in their retirement accounts.

We can set aside a surplus to save Social Security or Medicare, or we can pass the burden of the baby boomers retirement off on to our children,

We really need to think about four pillars for retirement. ... The first pillar is Social Security. The second is individual pensions or savings. The third is health insurance, very important. And the fourth, surprisingly, is the continued ability to earn, because many people are going to need to find some way of bringing in earnings after they pass normal retirement age, and we think that that should be more and more emphasized in terms of getting ready for that possibility.

For 70 years, Social Security has never failed to pay a promised benefit to seniors or people with disabilities - it has never been a day late or a dollar short, ... The plan he (Bush) is offering won't even come close to putting the program on solid financial footing.

We have a moral obligation to stand up and protect Social Security for the next 70 years and beyond -- that means stopping privatization and dropping partisan demands for private accounts,